Donor

I dont know how you can watch that game today and think the offense didnt shit the bed. 240 yards of offense, 1-10 on 3rd downs. Gave up 4 sacks and 6 TFL.

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You aren't wrong. I retract my previous statement. Because given the context and situations we were in we should have scored at least 10 more points. My point was that 20 points in the NFL isn't, by itself a disaster.

Donor

Also, I know I am a Mariota apologist, so take this with a grain of salt..Marcus' loves to attack the middle/intermediate part of the field and it seems like we have been getting more and more interior pressure that makes it harder for him to do that.

Donor

Donor

You aren't wrong. I retract my previous statement. Because given the context and situations we were in we should have scored at least 10 more points. My point was that 20 points in the NFL isn't, by itself a disaster.

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Agreed. I don't put it all on Marcus either. I dont know what game the radio guys were watching but when they said Marucs wasn't under that much pressure today I just laughed. Yea he held the ball too long sometimes but there were numerous plays where he was under pressure before he finished dropping back. That's on the coaching staff to make adjustments. If the line cant block than stop calling slow developing pass plays.

Donor

The best part of the day was the couple of time we got some cloud coverage. It was definitely one of the hottest games I have ever attended anywhere. Im really glad I didn't drink this weekend, because it would have sucked to sweat out the poison in there today.

Donor

The best part of the day was the couple of time we got some cloud coverage. It was definitely one of the hottest games I have ever attended anywhere. Im really glad I didn't drink this weekend, because it would have sucked to sweat out the poison in there today.

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And the AC in the club section we where at wasn't working. It may have been hotter in there than out at our seats.

Donor

Depressing thread. Mariota taking a sack before that last field goal isn’t getting talked about nearly enough. Crucial mistake at a crucial point in the game. Literally the one thing he couldn’t do besides turn it over. Kicker still needs to make it but man those 10 yards sure would have been nice. That shit happens over and over again.

While I hope he proves me wrong by improving for the rest of the season I’m ready to move on from him.

DonorTMB OG

Tired and frustrated after yet another loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the Titans were already doing their best to move forward following their 19-17 defeat Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

A few players noted it was one game in a long season, while another was quick to remind observers that the Titans would get another shot at the Colts.

A number of players said they had to put this game behind them as quickly as possible with another divisional game upcoming in just four days, Thursday in Jacksonville.

All true.

But this one doesn’t seem like it can be erased quickly.

This was an opportunity for the Titans to finally turn this rivalry around, thanks to quarterback Andrew Luck handing in his retirement papers. This was a chance for the Titans to win for just the third time in 16 contests against the Colts, a chance to take an early two-game lead on their nemesis.

Instead, it was more of the same, only without Peyton Manning or Luck leading the Colts.

This time, it was Jacoby Brissett throwing three touchdown passes, a Colts rushing attack grinding out 167 yards and an Indianapolis defense shutting down the Titans on their final four possessions.

Here are 10 observations from the contest:

1. Failure to launch
The box score will say that quarterback Marcus Mariota was sacked four times for a second consecutive week.

But at least a couple of the sacks — as well as a couple of the near sacks — appeared to be the result of Mariota simply holding the football too long. When Mariota doesn’t see an open receiver, and when he doesn’t have an immediate avenue to scramble, he tends to freeze for a split second — a split second too long in the NFL.

“There’s always going to be opportunities (for getting rid of the ball),” Mariota said. “But just trying to make plays for my team. Sometimes just learning to get rid of the ball is probably the best play.”

One Mariota sack that proved especially costly occurred early in the fourth quarter when he was dumped for a 7-yard loss on a third-and-5. Cairo Santos missed a 45-yard field goal on the next play.

“Trying to make a play, giving our guys a little extra time,” Mariota said of that play. “They had a spy. He came up and hugged and made a play. In that situation, obviously getting the ball out, not taking a sack would have been better.”

2. Drive killers
See if this logic makes any sense: The Titans finished a decent 15th in the league last year when it came to converting third-down opportunities, doing so at 40 percent.

Then, during the offseason, they welcomed back tight end Delanie Walker and also added receivers A.J. Brown and Adam Humphries. So how is it that after two games, the Titans are a horrendous 3-for-20 when it comes to converting third downs — 2-for-10 against Cleveland and 1-for-10 against Indianapolis?

One of the big problems against the Browns was too many third-and-long situations, and that issue reared its head against Indianapolis. The Titans faced a third-and-13, a third-and-18, a third-and-17, a third-and-15 and a third-and-10 among their nine failures.

But there appeared to be some mental mistakes as well: Walker caught a 12-yard pass on the third-and-13 situation, Brown caught a 6-yard pass on a third-and-7, and Tajae Sharpe — on a third-and-10 — simply had to fall forward after catching a pass to get a first down. Instead, Sharpe backpedaled to look for more yardage and came up a yard short.

“We have to do better on third downs,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “When you get into drives, what happens is that you can’t dictate the tempo if you’re not converting on those critical possession downs. We’ll have to figure something out here in a hurry so that we can (convert) that when we go down to Jacksonville on Thursday night.”

3. Too many hits
Quarterbacks can expect to take their share of hits in a game, but Mariota took more than he might in an average game Sunday.

In addition to the four sacks, Mariota took a couple of wicked shots when he scrambled.

The first occurred on third-and-8 in the first half, when he ran right — and made a spectacular partial hurdle of a defender but got hammered in mid-air and landed awkwardly on the sideline. To his credit, Mariota picked up a first down, but the play was negated when Jack Conklin was called for a hold. Mariota then suffered a crushing sack on the next play and fumbled (it was recovered by tackle Dennis Kelly).

In retrospect, Mariota said, he shouldn’t have attempted the risky running high-hurdle.

The second wicked hit occurred early in the fourth quarter when Mariota tried to scramble near the right sideline, only to be blasted out of bounds by safety Khari Willis.

“The first was not a smart decision,” Mariota said. “The second one, I was just naturally doing it. It was instinctive. It’s hard to kind of take that out of my game. But it’s something I’ve always done, so I can definitely learn from the first one. That was completely a bad decision.”

4. Need to get off the field
In Week 1, the Titans didn’t let the Browns develop any kind of rhythm on offense, holding Cleveland to just 1-of-10 on third-down attempts.

That situation changed a great deal against the Colts, especially in the first half. Indianapolis converted 5-of-6 third-down opportunities in the first half and 7-of-14 overall. On their first two touchdown drives, the Colts converted a third-and-12, third-and-7 and third-and-15. In addition, they converted another third-and-7 after Malcolm Butler was called for pass interference.

“Too many third-and-long conversions,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said. “When they get in favorable third-and-short situations, the probability kind of leans to the offense. But third-and-long, we had to get off the field.”

The Colts’ first touchdown marked the second consecutive week the Titans allowed a touchdown on the opponents’ opening drive.

“The only common thing is that we’re not starting fast enough,” Byard said. “I think we’re allowing teams to drive on us, get points, put us behind the eight ball a little bit.”

5. What happened to Walker?
In the first half, Walker caught three of the four passes thrown his way, posting two first downs and 35 yards. At that point, Walker had produced seven first downs on eight catches through the season’s first six quarters.

But he disappeared from the Titans offense in the second half, as Walker was targeted just twice. He made one catch for 4 yards. The other pass in his direction was a deep shot down the middle that had no chance of being completed with three Colts in Walker’s vicinity.

Normally talkative after wins and losses, Walker seemed drained following the loss to the Colts, at a loss for words.

“When you lose, if you feel happy about it, you shouldn’t be in this locker room, pretty much,” Walker said. “We lost. They beat us.”

6. How much did Humphries sign for again?
When the Titans signed the slot receiver to a four-year, $36 million deal during the offseason, the expectation was that Humphries would be a significant part of the offense.

It would have been hard to expect Humphries to repeat his career-best stats of last year in Tampa — 76 catches, 816 yards and five touchdowns — but he’s barely been noticeable in the Titans’ first two games. Against Cleveland, Humphries posted one catch for five yards. Against Indy, Humphries totaled two catches for minus-1 yard, adding one carry for one yard. So that’s three receptions for four yards in two weeks.

Wasn’t one of the reasons the Titans added Humphries was to be a big boost on third downs? That certainly hasn’t been the case through the first two weeks.

“Obviously for me, getting the ball out to (Humphries) when things aren’t open down the field, I think we talked about it a little bit,” Mariota said. “Maybe instead of taking some of those sacks, just dumping it off so we can go and get some positive yards.”

7. The King still rolling
Overshadowed by the loss was another strong rushing performance by Derrick Henry, who carried 15 times for 81 yards (5.4-yard average) and scored a touchdown.

Henry has now topped 80 yards in six consecutive games dating to last season and has totaled 10 touchdowns in those six contests.

The fourth-year running back looked especially dominant during one third-quarter series, gaining 11, 6 and 18 yards on consecutive carries. It seemed a little strange that — after the break for the end of the third quarter — Henry was briefly replaced by Dion Lewis, who ran for 2 yards on the following first down.

8. Inspirational moment
The Titans weren’t in a celebratory mood after the loss, but it was hard not to appreciate the significance of tackle David Quessenberry’s touchdown catch.

A reserve tackle, Quessenberry has drawn national attention for beating cancer. He spent the 2014-16 seasons on the reserve/non-football illness list after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in June 2014. Quessenberry was medically cleared and returned to action in 2017 as a member of the Texans practice squad.

A tackle eligible on the play, Quessenberry was not Mariota’s first choice on the pass from the one-yard line. In fact, the Titans hadn’t even run that play in practice.

“It was pretty surprising,” Mariota said. “They covered kind of the initial route concept and that was kind of a last resort. Great heads up play by him understanding where space is, and he made a great catch.

“The roller coaster he’s been a part of, it’s a pretty cool moment for him, and hopefully something he’ll remember and cherish for the rest of his life.”

9. Not taking advantage
Heading into Sunday’s game, the Titans under Vrabel were 10-1 when they didn’t lose the turnover battle.

The Titans were a plus-2 against the Colts, intercepting a Brissett pass once and recovering a Brissett fumble on another occasion. But unlike last week, when the Titans scored three touchdowns off three Cleveland turnovers, Tennessee couldn’t take advantage this time. The Titans took over on their own 40 following Logan Ryan’s second-quarter interception, but they punted after gaining 13 yards on five plays. In the fourth quarter, the Titans took over at the Colts’ 45 after Brissett’s fumble but were held to a field goal after putting together a drive of just 14 yards.

10. Decisions, decisions
There were a number of Titans decisions that will be deliberated for the next couple of days.

For instance, Vrabel chose not to challenge a pass interference call on Titans cornerback Malcolm Butler, one that gave the Colts a first down on third-and-7. It looked from one angle that Butler made a clean play, but there might have been room for doubt. In any event, the Colts marched down the field for their second touchdown and took a 13-7 lead.

“Those aren’t getting picked up,” Vrabel said of pass-interference flags. “It needs to be clear and obvious based on whatever replay. I think if you look at the numbers, they’re not going to pick up a flag that was put on the ground.”

Vrabel made another tough call late in the fourth quarter, choosing to punt on fourth-and-6 from his own 29 with just 3:38 left in the contest. The Titans’ defense would eventually earn a stop against Indy on the Colts’ next possession, but there was only 1:07 left in the contest at that point.

Did he consider going for it on fourth down?

“I just felt like we’d be able to get the ball back and give ourselves a chance,” Vrabel said. “The kind of way the game was going, that was the decision we went with.”

On the Titans’ final drive, Mariota was trying to push the team upfield as quickly as possible, in hopes of getting in field-goal range. But on third-and-2 at the Indy 45, Mariota spiked the ball to stop the clock with 15 seconds left. Mariota’s fourth-down pass was high, and Brown couldn’t pull the ball in.

Should Mariota have run a play instead of spiking the ball on third down?

“I think you could make that argument based on the time,” Vrabel said. “You don’t have any timeouts, so you’re starting to get under the gun.”

Said Mariota: “I felt like we were kind of running down on time, and I took the onus to spike it and maybe get 5 or 6 more yards so we could put it up. Looking back on it, I should have had a different play instead of clocking it. That’s totally on me.”

Donor

DonorTMB OG

Sheil Kapadia at The Athletic posts a list of 10 likes and 10 dislikes from each week... The #2 dislike is below. Woof, yall

2. Marcus Mariota, fifth-year quarterback

It feels like oftentimes we still discuss Mariota like he’s a first- or second-year player who has a lot of room to grow. But this is someone who has started 57 games, and if Sunday’s performance is any indication, 2019 is not going to be the year he turns the corner. Mariota averaged 3.7 net yards per pass play, which ranked 32nd out of 34 qualifying QBs in Week 2. He was sacked on 12.5% of his dropbacks, and the Titans were 1-for-10 on third down. Perhaps what’s most concerning with Mariota is that he’s making rookie mistakes. In the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-5 from the Indy 20, Mariota took a needless sack, turning a 38-yard field goal attempt into a 45-yard field goal attempt (which the Titans missed). Then, with the Titans trying to mount a game-winning drive with under a minute left, Mariota wasted a down by spiking the ball to stop the clock on third-and-2 rather than just running a play. He threw incomplete on fourth down, and the Titans lost a winnable game. New Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has schemed up some explosive plays in the first two games of the season, but Mariota needs to play better than he did Sunday if they’re going to be a playoff team.

They were looking forward to the next two games, both contests against AFC South rivals who were minus their expected starting quarterbacks, Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck and Jacksonville’s Nick Foles.

But less than than two weeks after that shot-out-of-a-cannon start, the Titans are wobbling back from Jacksonville having lost two straight divisional contests — to teams quarterbacked by Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew.

They’ll have an off weekend to try to figure out what’s happened to an offense that’s allowed 17 sacks of Marcus Mariota in three games and scored a combined 24 points in the past two contests, and to a defense that can’t seem to find traction in the early going.

The bottom line? The Titans are in the basement of the AFC South at 0-2, still having yet to play the defending division champs, the Houston Texans.

Here are 10 observations from the Titans’ 20-7 loss to Jacksonville on Thursday:

1. Under fire again
The previous week’s loss to Indianapolis saw Mariota get sacked four times, leading to several days’ worth of speculation as to whether more of the fault lay with Mariota (for not getting rid of the ball quickly enough) or the Titans’ offensive line (for shaky protection).

So the fact that Mariota was sacked a whopping nine times for 55 yards in the loss to Jacksonville should re-ignite that debate once again.

Personally — and without watching any film — I thought there were two or three times Mariota could have gotten rid of the ball to avoid a sack against the Jaguars. But overall, it appeared the offensive line shouldered more of the blame than the quarterback.

It’s easy to say the Titans are missing Pro Bowl left tackle Taylor Lewan, who is still serving a four-game suspension. But backup tackle Dennis Kelly appears to be holding up reasonably well in pass protection, aided at times by wide receivers, tight ends and running backs.

The interior of the line looked like more of the problem than the tackle spots against the Jaguars. Predictably, right guard Jamil Douglas had all kinds of difficult when he was pitted against Jacksonville’s Calais Campbell, who wound up sacking Mariota three times. Again, it would be easy here to say that Douglas is just a fill-in for the injured Kevin Pamphile. But Titans coach Mike Vrabel has said Douglas had been playing well enough that he might take over the starting spot from Pamphile.

Is rookie guard Nate Davis, the team’s third-round pick out of Charlotte, next in line at the spot? Davis missed a lot of training camp due to injury.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to get Nate ready,” Vrabel said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we had enough time to get him there this week. Having played on Sunday, a walk-through on Monday, I think the schedule is tough.

“There’s a lot of reps that he missed, and we understand and we’re trying to do what we can do to get him ready. Nate’s going to have to play for us here.”

The Titans’ other starting guard, Rodger Saffold, seemed to indicate that a lack of open receivers was resulting in some of the sacks as well.

“In hindsight, it takes all 11 to protect the quarterback,” Saffold said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on, why there is nowhere to go with the ball. What do we need to do? So I think everyone is going to look real critically at themselves coming into next week.”

2. Missing the mark
As noted above, there were plenty of times Mariota had very little time to throw against the Jaguars. On one screen play, for instance, it appeared that half the offensive line charged right without slowing any of the Jacksonville pass-rushers. Mariota was sacked before the play could develop.

But Mariota also missed some targets.

Mariota customarily takes the blame for virtually every incomplete pass. But there were a few that stood out on a night he went 23 for 40 for 304 yards. One occurred in the second quarter, when Tajae Sharpe broke into the clear down the left side of the field. The pass didn’t come close to connecting, making it appear that either Mariota or Sharpe was on the wrong page.

“That was completely on me,” Mariota said. “He ran a great route. We had an opportunity there to make a play and I just, you know, I missed it. Tajae, again I feel like, when given the ball and given the opportunity, he made plays. I’ve just got to do a better opportunity of giving him a chance.”

Mariota did connect on some big plays in the passing game — 47 yards to Sharpe (who beat Jalen Ramsey), 30 yards to Adam Humphries, 29 yards to Delanie Walker, 23 yards to Sharpe and 22 yards to Humphries. In the loss to Indy last Sunday, the Titans had produced only one passing play of more than 20 yards.

3. Consider a quarterback switch?
With Mariota struggling for much of the night, and the Titans scoreless through three quarters, it raised the question of whether Vrabel might turn to backup quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

For most of the night, Tannehill wore his baseball cap and didn’t appear close to entering the contest. But at one point in the second half, Tannehill did pull on a helmet. Vrabel said, however, that the Titans didn’t come close to making a switch.

“Not very (close),” Vrabel explained. “(Tannehill) can just hear the (play) calls when he puts his helmet on.”

4. Henry halted
Derrick Henry had run for more than 80 yards in six consecutive games dating back to last year. But that streak came to a halt against the Jags, as he was held to 44 yards on 17 carries.

Part of the problem was penalties, which I have detailed in an observation later in the column.

But another significant issue was that the Titans fell so quickly in a hole — 14-0 with 6:42 still left in the first — that they couldn’t utilize Henry and the run game as often as they would have liked. The Titans wound up passing the ball 40 times and running just 26 times.

One of Henry’s biggest potential plays actually came via the passing game, as the Titans set him up for what looked like an extremely promising screen pass to the left side of the field early in the third quarter. Had Henry caught the ball, he appeared to have a line of blockers and an opportunity to get a head of steam going.

Instead, Henry dropped the ball, the second time that’s happened in three games.

“I have to be better than that,” Henry said. “I caught the ball and I was ready to run, and I didn’t tuck it away. I let it slip down to my side. I’ve got to secure that catch, look the ball in and get upfield. It could have been a big play. I just got too happy and I was ready to go.”

5. Missed pass, skipped kick
With the Titans trailing 14-0, they took their first possession of the third quarter into the Jacksonville red zone, where they faced a third-and-6. Mariota appeared to have a chance to hit Walker in the end zone, but he underthrew the ball and it was knocked away.

“I thought I put enough on it,” Mariota said. “I didn’t get to see the result of the play. Obviously, he broke it up. But I wish I would’ve put a little more on it. I’ll have to see it on film.”

Instead of going for a fourth-down field goal that would have trimmed the Jags’ lead to 14-3, Vrabel opted to go for the fourth-and-6. Mariota was sacked for a nine-yard loss, and Jacksonville then drove 58 yards before kicking a field goal and taking a 17-0 lead.

When the Titans finally scored a touchdown, what might have been a 17-10 deficit was only 17-7 because of the decision not to kick the field goal.

“That’s the farthest we had gotten down there, and I felt like there was some momentum there that we would like to try to capitalize on and get the touchdown,” Vrabel said of his decision not to kick. “I felt like our defense was playing pretty good and we decided to go for it.”

6. Lost confidence, lost cause?
The Titans had hoped an offseason might cure the mistakes and lost confidence punt returner Adoree Jackson suffered for a good portion of the 2018 season.

But the results Thursday proved that hasn’t happened.

Any momentum the Titans had gained by stifling Jacksonville’s first drive was immediately reversed when Jackson muffed the Jaguars’ punt — trying to field it on the hop and fumbling the football in the process. Jacksonville took over at the Titans’ 7-yard line and scored the opening touchdown one play later.

“I was waiting on that second hop,” Jackson said of the play. “Usually when it rolls on the ground and bounces up, you can get it on the hop. That’s what I was expecting, but it didn’t.

“I already had my mind made up to catch it, and … it was in my hands and I just couldn’t keep the ball. I just should have let it keep going, but I was being aggressive on that play, just trying to pick it up and make a play.

“I wish I could have it back. That’s on me. I feel like the first seven points were on me.”

Somewhat surprisingly, given Jackson’s struggles, Vrabel stuck with Jackson, who — on the next return — called for a fair catch and then let the ball drop a couple yards in front of him. It rolled several yards after hitting the ground before the Jaguars downed it.

Humphries eventually took over the punt-return duties in the second quarter and held them for the rest of the contest.

“I wanted to give (Jackson) an opportunity to come back and catch it and see if we could get something going,” Vrabel said. “And then at that point in time, I made a switch.”

Did Jackson allowing the second punt to hit the ground lead to the switch?

“There’s a lot of reasons why we make decisions to put different guys in the game,” Vrabel said.

7. Holding up progress
One game after committing five penalties for 75 yards against Indianapolis, the Titans upped that total to nine penalties for 101 yards against the Jaguars.

There were certainly some calls that appeared questionable — a late hit by Kamalei Correa on Minshew and a couple of pass-interference calls as well.

But what really hurt the Titans most — on a night the offense struggled to gain any traction — were the holding calls.

The Titans were whistled for four holding penalties in the first half — either completely negating (or at least lessening) a seven-yard Derrick Henry run, a six-yard Henry run, a Henry 13-yard run and a Mariota four-yard gain.

Three of those four holding penalties stymied Titans drives immediately, leading to punts without another first down.

“We’re going to have to figure out what they’re looking at and what they’re calling,” Vrabel said. “Whether we agree with it or not, we have to make sure we’re playing fast and aggressive without fouling, and tonight we weren’t able to do that.”

8. That one big run
For the second game in a row, the Titans looked strong for the most part against the run … with one big exception.

Against Indianapolis, the Titans held the Colts in check on the ground until midway through the fourth quarter, when Jordan Wilkins roared 55 yards downfield to set up Indy’s game-winning touchdown.

Against Jacksonville, the Titans were absolutely stifling Leonard Fournette, holding him to minus-8 yards on his first 11 carries. But with the Titans desperately in need of a big stop to get the ball back late, Fournette broke through the line for a 69-yard gain. That allowed Jacksonville to kill more clock and pin the Titans on their own 4-yard line with 3:23 remaining.

Even with the 69-yard carry, Fournette finished the night with just 66 yards — and the Jags totaled only 88 yards rushing as a team.

“It’s frustrating because you stop the run the whole entire game, and give one big run and it looks like we didn’t stop the run at all the whole game,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said.

9. Something to build on
There were some encouraging numbers for the Titans on the defensive side of the ball.

The Titans held the Jaguars to just 12 first downs and to 2 of 11 on third-down conversion attempts. In addition, after surrendering two first-quarter touchdowns to the Jaguars (one was a one-play drive of seven yards, the other a six-play, 62-yard drive), the Titans surrendered just six points — two field goals — for the rest of the contest.

“I was proud of our effort in the defense,” Byard said. “We kept fighting the entire game. We started off bad giving up 14 points, but then for the rest of the game they only scored six points.”

Added Jackson: “We tried to stay poised and tried to help the offense out as much as possible.”

10. Where was the rush?
One defensive area that was lacking for the Titans was the pass rush, as Tennessee didn’t sack Jacksonville’s rookie quarterback a single time. Minshew did show some mobility, running four times for 18 yards. But he wasn’t heavily threatened by a Titans defense that came into the contest with eight sacks in the first two games — five against Cleveland and three against Indianapolis.

“I think it was a combination of things,” Titans outside linebacker Cameron Wake said. “They had some max-protection looks and they threw the ball quick.”

Added outside linebacker Sharif Finch: “(Minshew) was getting the ball out quick, like two seconds. He did a good job, so credit to him.”

DonorTMB OG

Rexrode: If the Titans can’t beat the dysfunctional Jaguars, they need to consider all possible changes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Derrick Henry had a game-changer in his hands, another well-disguised screen play that started with a run fake to him, and it was blocked right and would have come down to Henry, the open field and a defensive back trying to overcome physics.

It looked just like the biggest play in the Titans’ season-opening win at Cleveland. It might have had a similar result and effect. It squirted through Henry’s grasp and onto the damp TIAA Bank Field grass Thursday night.

“Would have been a big play,” Henry said a couple hours later in another solemn Tennessee Titans locker room. “I just got too happy.”

There are many who play, work or root for this team who might say the same thing. There was much rejoicing just 11 days before this miserable 20-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. A 43-13 rout of the Browns seems more distant than that, now that the Titans have managed to carve out an 0-2 AFC South hole in less than a week. The nature of this league and the history of this Titans nucleus demands perspective at all such moments — you aren’t angling for a fourth straight 9-7 season if you don’t know how to answer ups with downs and downs with ups! — and a competent performance to counter this joke of one is coming.

Win at Atlanta on Sept. 29 to break even on the first month, get the star left tackle back from his four-game PED suspension and prosper. This is possible. So is Taylor Lewan returning to a team in crisis and a different quarterback to protect. Marcus Mariota has been bad enough in the past two games that a Mike Vrabel decision to give Ryan Tannehill a shot is at least worth mentioning as a possibility now. Vrabel shrugged off a question about Tannehill putting his helmet on Thursday as if prepared to go in, just as Mariota answered the key question on his performance — if the terrible protection he’s getting is messing with his head — with a flat, “No.”

So, yes, these things are hitting close to home now. Mariota was sacked nine times Thursday, making it 17 in three games this season. That’s the most for a quarterback in the first three weeks of a season since 2002, according to the NFL. So, yes, Lewan should be feeling shame now. A lot of that pressure is coming inside, but when you have an elite left tackle on the field, you can leave him alone and give more help elsewhere. Maybe if Mariota knew he had Lewan bouncing on his blind side, he would settle in and play the way he used to play. Maybe he wouldn’t be coming off his second consecutive loss to an AFC South backup quarterback, this one a sixth-round rookie named Gardner Minshew, whose scrappy play and beloved mustache can’t make up for the fact that the Jags (1-2) are dysfunction addicts whose star cornerback (Jalen Ramsey) has demanded a trade.

Mariota deserves credit for hanging in and fighting through it all Thursday, and he finished with decent stats (23 for 40, 304 yards), but don’t get it confused. He’s a mess right now. He missed several opportunities that should be layups for an NFL quarterback, with time to throw, with open receivers, that could have changed this game.

And he was buried aplenty. And he had some bad luck, like when Henry dropped that screen pass. There’s a “What if?” game to play after every loss in this league, but the Titans might be doing it all weekend.

What if one of Jon Robinson’s two first-round picks in 2017, No. 3 corner Adoree’ Jackson, doesn’t botch the fielding of a bouncing punt after the first possession of the game, helping the Jaguars grab a quick 7-0 lead?

“Just tricked it off … big mistake on my part,” said Jackson, who strangely continues to return punts for this team and strangely stayed back there after the turnover, until a bungled fair catch finally convinced Vrabel to go to Adam Humphries.

What if one of Robinson’s high-priced free-agent signings, former Patriots corner Malcolm Butler, can reach just an inch or two higher on three big plays that victimized him and gave the Jags the offensive output they needed? What if Vrabel opts for a field goal on the first possession of the second half to make it 14-3, after Mariota couldn’t get two straight passes to Delanie Walker in the end zone, rather than go on fourth-and-6 to see Mariota buried for a sack?

If a later Titans touchdown makes the score 17-10 instead of 17-7, does that put enough pressure on the Jaguars to alter the outcome of the next series? Does Jacksonville still get a weak pass interference call on Logan Ryan (Thursday night football means Thursday night refs, you know) to extend that series and turn it into a drain of more than 4 minutes and another field goal? That’s the type of hypothetical that can’t be answered without a flex capacitor.

What if this isn’t 14-0 Jaguars before much of a two-thirds-full stadium is settled into seats? Does that change the Titans’ offensive approach? More work for Henry? More attention for Robinson’s other first-round selection in 2017, Corey Davis? The No. 5 overall pick that year has six catches for 82 yards through three games of his third season. With some luck in Atlanta, he’ll finish with a 100-yard month.

If you want to fire up the time machine, what if Mariota doesn’t have a fibula fractured in the Titans’ last loss in this stadium, a 2016 debacle that robbed them of a division title and playoff appearance? That was Mariota’s last, and only, outstanding season in the NFL. What if that injury is still lingering in some ways?

And what if this offense is starting to get to this locker room? This is a veteran team with a lot of quality people on it. The Titans will get back to work and will play better. But I found this exchange between a reporter and the team’s unofficial spokesman, Kevin Byard, interesting.

Reporter: “To watch Marcus struggle in the first half but then go out there in the second half and take nine sacks and battle for you guys, what’s that like watching on the sideline?”

Byard: “I mean, you know, I can’t control what the offense does. All I can do is sit on the sidelines and tell our guys we have to keep fighting, keep them in the game and try to keep giving them opportunities to get the ball back and go score a touchdown. I mean, other than that, I feel like our defense, we played great. Gave up two easy touchdowns in the beginning of the game and after that only six points.”

He’s not wrong. Neither was Vrabel when he said: “I think there’s a lot of guys that fought, a lot of guys that competed.”

“We’ll have to find out if everybody was doing that,” Vrabel said. “Judging by the score, probably not the case.”

Marcus Mariota won’t be one of those culprits after this game film is analyzed. His heart and desire to win are unimpeachable. But I’ll bet, after Vrabel has watched all those throws again and has turned off the TV, he’s thinking about Ryan Tannehill.

Donor

Donor

People expect ( want? Wish?) Mariota to be Mahomes/Rodgers/Russell etc and he isnt. Since he isn't a top 8 QB fans want to find a new one, which is dumb. Marcus could EASILY be a top 12ish QB and you can win with that if you have a competent coaching staff/OL/scheme and the Titans are so far away from any of that, that any QB not named Mahomes/Rodgers/Brady etc would fail.

Like, if you watched that game last night and your number 1 issue is Mariota you just dont get it IMO. Did he play well? Not really. Could any QB play well when they get sacked NINE times ( PFF attributed only 1 to Marcus) and get pressured 18 times and your RG grades out at 12.5. Let me repeat that, our RG had a passing grade of 12.5...I literally didnt know it could go so low. We also have a scheme stuck in the 90s.

People want to trade up and use multiple assets to go get a QB and put them in this same dog shit situation? Good luck with that.

TLDR: Did Marcus help the offense last night ? No. Did he have a chance in hell to really do anything? Nope.

Donor

People expect ( want? Wish?) Mariota to be Mahomes/Rodgers/Russell etc and he isnt. Since he isn't a top 8 QB fans want to find a new one, which is dumb. Marcus could EASILY be a top 12ish QB and you can win with that if you have a competent coaching staff/OL/scheme and the Titans are so far away from any of that, that any QB not named Mahomes/Rodgers/Brady etc would fail.

Like, if you watched that game last night and your number 1 issue is Mariota you just dont get it IMO. Did he play well? Not really. Could any QB play well when they get sacked NINE times ( PFF attributed only 1 to Marcus) and get pressured 18 times and your RG grades out at 12.5. Let me repeat that, our RG had a passing grade of 12.5...I literally didnt know it could go so low. We also have a scheme stuck in the 90s.

People want to trade up and use multiple assets to go get a QB and put them in this same dog shit situation? Good luck with that.

TLDR: Did Marcus help the offense last night ? No. Did he have a chance in hell to really do anything? Nope.

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Oregon fans have been making this same post for 5 fucking straight years now. MM is a garbage ass pro QB that's proven he's a garbage ass pro QB over and over and over again. It wouldn't matter if he was behind and All-Pro O-line, he has the decision making of a 20 gallon hefty bag full of 30 gallons of shit. If he was doing this stuff in game 9 you'd have a case that he could turn it around. It's game 59 though. This is as good as it's going to get.

Donor

Oregon fans have been making this same post for 5 fucking straight years now. MM is a garbage ass pro QB that's proven he's a garbage ass pro QB over and over and over again. It wouldn't matter if he was behind and All-Pro O-line, he has the decision making of a 20 gallon hefty bag full of 30 gallons of shit. If he was doing this stuff in game 9 you'd have a case that he could turn it around. It's game 59 though. This is as good as it's going to get.

Donor

If the rest of the O is a disaster right now (and it is), I don’t want to pay him 25MM for what he brings to the table. It’s not all his fault, I’m just over him now.

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This is a very fair position IMO. Like I was alluding to in my post, he is not a Mahomes/Rodgers level QB that carry a team by themselves. So if the rest of it isn't there, rebuilding is probably the answer and that would include not paying him.

My gripe is that people act like he is some bottom tier QB because they just look at his stats and dont use the context of the situation. Put him in Chicago instead of Mitch and the story is a lot different.